I love old star atlases and old astronomy books. My all-time fav is Burnham's 3 volume set. On a snowy night, I love sitting by the fireplace and reading through his amazing descriptions of various sky objects. Its fascinating to see how much we "knew" back then and also to use the Interwebs (a series of tubes invented by Al Gore) to see what the updated information is on that binary star system, or that far flung galaxy.

Another all-time favourite book of mine is "The Handbook of Astronomy" by James Muirden published in 1964. I bought it for $5 at some used book store, and I think I've read it cover-to-cover like 100 times. Again I am fascinated not only by how much they did know back then, but also what they didn't know (but that we know now).

Spent an evening with my wife at a special dinner event. A blind barkeeper would lead us into a totally dark room, introducing us to his own everyday world of living in eternal darkness. It was amazing and frightening at the same time. I felt uneasy but then it dawned on me that I tend to take my ability to see for granted. It definitely is not.

So here you have it: I like the great gift of my eyesight so I can enjoy the wonders that only a telescope can show.

I like Meade gear. I love my Plossls! I love my HDs! I love my LXD75 and 650! I love my Autostar! I love my ETX90! I love my 0.965 MAs! I love my 127ED! I divorced (actually sold) my AR5 but I loved that too! Also my SN10 was mediocre but I loved it! The new owner loves it!

-drl

I am just trying to help the moderators. The title of the thread, and the directions, included the words "I like...". I do not see where we were instructed to post what we love.

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I like the fact that in the nearly 14 years I been a Cloudy Nights member, the Classics forum has changed with the times. Scopes that at one time were generally considered not to be classics like the older C-8s have become accepted and revered.